attraction. >> reporter: the class starts with a warm-up. >> try to let your body be nice and soft, nice and relaxed. >> reporter: and if you get more daring with your moves so do the cats. >> sometimes they just sit and watch us. sometimes they're like running through the mats and climbing on people. so you never really know what's going to happen. >> reporter: these cats aren't just here to play. they're rescues and up for adoption. >> that's why we're here, these cats are up for adoption. some of them are special needs, some have been through a lot. so it's nice to find that connection. hello. you're in the "cnn newsroom." i'm ana cabrera in new york. president trump is back on twitter responding moments ago to the stunning new report in "the washington post" that details how and when president obama first learned that russia was leading a major campaign to sway last year's election.

the president tweeted this. since the obama administration was told that the russians were meddling, why no action? focus on them, not he. he went on to say that the obama administration officials said they choked when it came to the russian meddling. they didn't want to hurt hillary? and "the post" report details what actions president obama did take and how they wrestled with various options for retaliation. michelle kosinski has the details. >> reporter: a bombshell report. starkly laying out the u.s. intelligence community's taste for russia's meddling in the 2016 election and it was directly ordered by vladimir putin. "the washington post" detailing that intelligence sources had captured putin's own instruction to disrupt and discredit the presidential race. with the goal of defeating or

hurting hillary clinton and helping donald trump. the cia delivered it by courier to president obama in august. "the post" says that it revealed the frustration, now among some of them that more was not done to punish russia. quoting one it's the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend. i feel like we sort of choked. they say the administration was worried about appearing to try to influence the election themselves as well as provoking russia. one official explains, our primary interest in august, september and october was to prevent them from doing the max they could do. and after the election, some of the harsher options for punishing russian like a cyber attack on them faced roadblocks. one defended the obama administration. >> maybe the judgment was wrong, maybe we should have acted differently. maybe we should have done certain things that we didn't do.

but given everything we were dealing with, given first of all the perception that russia's main objective was to undermine the confidence in the election that motivated us to be careful about how we played this in public. >> reporter: the obama administration did set the ball rolling to infiltrate russia's infrastructure, with cyber weapons controlled remotely like bombs that could cripple the systems. the white house says trump stands by his january comments that he thinks russia was involved in the hacking. and has no plans to fire the special counsel overseeing the russia investigation, robert mueller. despite trump in an interview expressing worry over mueller's friendliness with fired fbi director james comey. >> which is very bother some, but he's also -- we have to see. >> reporter: on the same interview in fox he addressed why he alluded to possibly having recordings of his conversations with comey when in fact he had none. >> but when he found out that

i -- you know, that there may be tapes out there, whether it's governmental tapes or anything else, who knows, i think his story may have changed. i mean, you'll to have to take a look at that. because then he has to tell what actually took place at the events. >> reporter: but when cnn pressed -- >> my question for you, what is the white house -- what is president trump now doing to prevent russia from doing this again? >> well, this report is new and we'll discuss it with him later. >> reporter: again and again -- >> i mean, russia, what is he doing to try to start this? >> allison, i realize you like to say the word russia russia to mislead the voters and i know cnn is aiding and abetting the voters -- >> you're not answering it. >> yes. i am. >> what is he -- >> he is saying he want the

ballot integrity to be protected. >> reporter: on friday, the house intelligence committee was waiting for james comey's memos, as well as any official word from the white house that they don't have recordings of the conversations between trump and comey. as we see the investigations evolve now the senate judiciary committee wants information from loretta lynch to see if she might have improperly influenced the hillary clinton e-mail investigation. michelle kosinski, cnn, washington. let's discuss. joining us the national security analyst and retired cia chief, and professor emeritus of harvard law, alan dershowitz. one of the most explosive parts is that the cia was able to get vladimir putin's specific orders deep in the kremlin we're learning. what does that tell you and do you think the russian president will be rattled by this? >> according to "the washington

post" reporting it was an intelligence coup in the sense they got a very valuable piece of intelligence which frankly analytically we had assumed and sort of kind of -- come to the conclusion the while back. i think you have heard people on your program and others and myself included not a whole lot goes on in the national security front, on the intelligence front or any front in russia without vladimir putin being involved and it's no surprise to me that a former intelligence officer like putin would have wanted to be, you know, either kept up to speed very quickly on these types of -- that type of operation, influence operation to try to change the elections or actually be personally involved in it. that's just i think sort of who putin is. >> now, in december, president obama placed sanctions on russia, closed down the compounds in new york and in maryland. was that enough? i mean, president trump is criticizing their reaction. we know the compounds were allowed to operate in the first place and u.s. officials knew they had enhanced espionage capabilities. >> well, the other part of th that -- the other thing of the

sanctions package that was more damaging to the russian operations near the u.s. was the expelling of 35 russian diplomats, probably most of them intelligence officers. so yeah, they shut down the two -- the two vacation sites, the two da chas and were they being used operationally, who knows. they're good spies, they would figure out ways to use the locations but it's really a hard -- it's a hard thing. i mean, they got the intelligence and then the question is from a policy perspective what do they do? that's what's fascinating about "the post" article. you have the one end of the spectrum, you go cyber warnary fair and then you look at the sanctions. it's not as easy as it seems to come one a good response when sitting here, you know, there's a pundit trying to say this is what they should have done. some pretty tough choices there. >> alan, president trump has been getting classified briefings as well since he was nominated last summer and he's known russia hacked the election

since at least october when the public found out. doesn't him highlighting this issue with his tweets also highlight what little he's done? >> well, i think it shows that we're going down the wrong track by having a criminal investigation of the russia connection. criminal investigations are not designed to uncover the truth. they're designed to uncover admissible evidence against particular individuals. we should be having an independent commission set up with subpoena power to get to the bottom of what russia is doing, how long they have been doing it and how to stop them from doing it in the future. this is a national issue. not an issue of partisanship, not an issue for criminal justice. this is an issue for information gathering so that all americans know the extent of the problem and address the problem for the future. we're going down exactly the wrong road by -- >> well, the criminal

investigation -- but we have those four congressional committees that are also investigating. those are bipartisan committees as well. >> no, they're not bipartisan. they have a majority republican. they're not bipartisan. the democrats don't have subpoena power. there has to be a nonpartisan commission to -- consisting of people who want to get to the bottom of this and are not trying to get partisan advantage either for the democrats or republicans. not trying to point the finger of blame, see, this is what obama should have done or trump should have done. that's the wrong approach to this problem and we have to have an objective, nonpartisan information gathering approach so that we the american people can decide how to respond to this. >> alan, you don't have faith in mueller to be nonpartisan? >> absolutely not. it's not that i don't have faith in him to be nonpartisan, but his job is to find crimes. there probably aren't any crimes committed by americans, even if

there were republicans who took advantage of what the russians were doing that's not a crime. you won't get to the bottom of this by a criminal investigation. you only get to the bottom by of a broad based investigation. remember, mueller's jurisdiction is limited to finding violations of existing federal criminal statutes. that doesn't give him a broad enough basis for getting to the bottom of what happened here. second of all, he doesn't make things public. he either gets an indictment or no indictment. we're not to know what goes on behind the closed doors of a grand jury. >> so steve, let me bring you back into the conversation and talk about what can be done in order to prevent the russians from doing some kind of interference again. we heard from jeh johnson, the former homeland security secretary say that he believes that the russians are not deterred. do you see a strategy behind president trump's approach that appears to be opening relations

with russia versus punishing them? >> i do not, but in fairness it's difficult and a lot of -- i think certainly the modern era, the past presidents that we have had have started their administrations thinking that they can work it all out with russia just through their strength of personality. obama did the same thing. george bush did the same thing. so this is not an uncommon thing to say, okay, we'll fix it with russia. and then really it becomes difficult when you say how, what are we going to do given the fact that we know that the russians did indeed conduct an influence operation during our elections? i think what we need to do is we need to take a very close look at our cyber capabilities and both offensive and defensive. it's hard to create it when you're connected to the internet designed for the free flow of information. you have to see this as a nuclear situation. you have to make it so unattractive for your enemy in

this case russia to conduct such an attack in future. the only way you can do that is to be able to threaten significant cyber damage yourself. it's very tricky. it's a very slippery slope. just like nuclear weapons are. that's what we have to take a look at. that's where our military might and planning and r&d needs to be focused in the coming months and years. >> thank you both. still to come, did president trump just lay out the groundwork for the democrats' worst fear he may try to fire the man leading the russia investigation? next what president trump says bothers him about robert mueller. hint -- something to do with the last guy he fired, james comey. you're live in the "cnn newsroom." with roundup precision gel®, you can finally banish garden weeds without harming precious plants nearby. so draw the line. just give the stick one click, touch the leaves and the gel stays put killing garden weeds to the root with pinpoint precision.

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it includes his firing of james comey and he said that mueller is quote very very good friends with comey and the president said that's very bothersome. cnn's randi kaye looks into the relationship between the two former fbi directors. >> reporter: no question these two former fbi directors have a history. it dates back to 2004 when james comey refused to authorize an nsa surveillance program called stellar wind under george w. bush. comey learned members of the bush administration were heading to then attorney general john ashcroft's hospital room to get him to reauthorize the spying program. comey called robert mueller who was the fbi director at the time to alert him. >> i told him what was happening, he said i'll meet you at the hospital right now. one of the finest people i ever met. >> reporter: comey was deputy attorney general at the time and was serving as the acting head of the justice department. he was later named fbi director

by president obama right after mueller stepped down. >> congratulations, mr. director. >> reporter: for years, comey and mueller have spoken highly of each other. >> it's daunting to follow mueller but also a gift. i promise to do my best to uphold his legacy. >> i have had the opportunity to work with jim for a number of years in the department of justice. and i have found him to be a man of honesty, dedication and integrity. >> reporter: still, after breitbart quoted a former fbi assistant director saying comey and muler are the best of friends and have been for over two decades, comey's attorney tried to set the record straight. he told snopes, jim and bob are friends in the sense that co-workers are friends. they don't really have a personal relationship. the attorney said they have never been to each other's house. and that the two men have only had lunch together once and dinner twice. another important note despite some claims the two men are very

good friends, comey had nothing to do with mueller's appointment as special counsel. president trump had already fired comey by the time deputy attorney general rod rosenstein brought mueller in to lead the doj's russia investigation. now whether or not mueller and comey have much of a friendship, they do seem to share many of the same values and beliefs. both were educated at virginia universities. mueller at the university of virginia and comey at william somemary. both had given up big jobs at private law firms and worked with holder during his time at the justice department under the clinton administration. while the extent of their friendship remains unclear, they do both share a reputation for having a commitment to credibility, truthfulness and honesty. >> regardless of your chosen career, you are only as good as your word. you can be smart, aggressive, articulate and indeed persuasive. but if you're not honest, your

reputation will suffer and once lost a good reputation can never be regained. >> reporter: randi kaye, cnn, new york. and an update now on the republican house steve scalise who was shot in the hip last week. he is out of intensive care and the hospital statement says that the congressman is listed in fair condition. the hospital notes he still faces an extended period of hearing and rehabilitation. meantime, another victim of that shooting matt mika is in good condition and back at home. his family says he is,ed to make a full recovery after undergoing multiple surgeries. so good to see that big smile on his face. the end may be near for obamacare. the fate is in the hand of five senator, gop senators who are not willing to back the current legislation that's been presented. can the majority leader get this bill to the president's desk and

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two votes -- that's the margin of error for passing the health care act. they have waited seven years to repeal and replace obamacare and now mitch mcconnell has a significant problem -- the math problem. five republican senators say they won't vote for the bill in its current form. three more have concerns. and mcconnell wants a vote on this bill in just five days before congress leaves for the july 4th holiday. let's talk it over with alice stewart a former communications director for senator ted cruz's presidential bid and former chair of the washington, d.c. democratic party a. scott bolden. so if it came to the vote

tomorrow, it could fail. could mcconnell get it across the finish line? >> well, if it came up for vote tomorrow, yes, it would fail. i have confidence in mcconnell that he can bring this across the finish line. think back to when the house was working on their version of repeal and replace obamacare, the first one put out, the more conservative members said we need lower costs which promised our constituents. that's what's happening here. so look, senator lee and as well as ted cruz that says this doesn't go far enough. cruz wants to get to yes and he will. but the only problem he needs to see a version that has lower premiums and greater flexibility at the state level. and if they can come to terms on that, i do see this passing. >> but if it goes to -- further to the right, to meet those conservative demands, it then would alienate the other people who have concerns that are the more moderate gop family.

so how do you square that? >> that's part of the whack-a-mole game in politics, you have to come to the middle. both sides know there's negotiating. this is the art of the deal it worked in the house and i see the original bill -- look, everyone realized there was going to be some conversation and talk there. i see mcconnell bringing people together and talking but the conservative members have their say and getting some of what they want, and at the same time, the more moderate and those that aren't quite as hard core on some of the issues letting them get what they want. but you can't sacrifice the perfect for the will of the good. they campaigned and won on repealing and replacing obamacare. they'll work to do that. >> well, we had a unifying message that's for sure, but not everybody is going to get what they want. they'll get a little bit of that they want, but both sides are saying, we have already given too much. so i'm not quite sure how that's going to happen. we'll wait and see. it's not our job to figure that out. scott, senate democrats seem to

have no good options right now. they can't stop this bill necessarily because they don't have enough votes to prevent it from passing. what would you tell them to do if you had one piece of advice for the caucus? >> well, i would certainly tell them to fight this. this is bad bill. you know the definition of a bad bill is when you have moderates and then you have conservatives on the republican side and they can't agree on a bill because you can't get to the center because you've got a constituency out there that you made promises to. one, to repeal, but you have made promises not to cut medicaid. you made promises to lower costs and made promises to cover everyone and it's untenable in the republican party. that's why this is a challenge, but the democrats they say, listen, don't repeal obamacare. we know it's not perfect. let's repair it if you will. we'll work with you on repairing it. but i have to tell you, the republicans and the senate and the house are just hell bent on repealing it and it's untenable because you have midterms in

2018. you're going have to sell to your constituents in your home districts that you actually cut medicaid and raised the cost on the elderly and that it's not going to cover everyone. oh, but we got rid of the individual mandate. we'll see if in the midterms that sells. the democrats are hoping and belting on the fact it won't -- betting on the fact it won't sell, because they're going to be reminding their constituents what the republicans did if they pass this. rep it has to go to conference. even if they pass it in the senate. >> it's kind of interesting because when you look at the poll numbers and approval, obamacare's approval ratings are going up and the republican gop health care bill ratings are going down. the house bill at least has been polled. what do you think that's all about, alice? >> well, you have to look at the big picture with regard to obamacare and millions of americans are suffering. when this was passed into law years ago, we were promised lower costs, we were promised greater choices and better access to health care and that

hasn't happened. >> why is the approval rating going up then? i know there are people who have had bad luck on obamacare who are very, very desperate for a change. you know, that's a fact. but more people say they would rather have obamacare than they would have the republican plan. >> the bottom line is there are still millions of americans who are suffering under the weight of obamacare and while the poll numbers may be going up, it's a snapshot in time because people want change. that's why president trump was elected. that's why we have republicans in control in the house and senate because people across this country wanted to repeal and replace obamacare. there's an overwhelming mandate in washington to repeal and replace this health care plan that doesn't work. and republicans in washington are going to do just that. >> but scott, this week republicans won a race that the democrats poured millions of dollars into. karen handel defeated jon

ossoff, but the party had money, but did the democratic party have a unifying, cohesive message to get their base and independents fired up? >> well, every race is local. one message works in one state, another message works in another state. did we have a unifying message, i don't think any has a unifying message on strategy. ossoff decided to take a moderate message and republicans who were in the heavily republican district decided to go with the party as opposed to either voting against trump or voting for ossoff. so when you talk about a unifying message. it's hard in a deeply red state. all four of the races that the democrats have lost they have shown they can be competitive when they weren't supposed to be. but they have to find that unifying message going forward. i called these races practice runs. they wouldn't have changed the dynamic in the house and the senate but it would have shown america that trump's message and the republican's message wasn't

working. they got close, but no moral victories. take what you can get from the losses and then figure out what that message is going to be. find great candidates in 2018 because that's the real test. we have got to take the democrats -- the democrats have to take back one of the houses. they better get the getting because we have only six to nine months. >> real quick, alice, republicans are winning the seats but there's -- but the results are closer than people would expect. handel won by four points and tom price won by 23 points in the last election. that has to worry the gop. >> and johnny isakson won in double digits and newt gingrich before that. that's my home district and i'm familiar with it. at the end of the day a win is a win. i will hand it to the democrats. ossoff did a great job, they had tremendous momentum. they had made great progress but they didn't have the message that resonated with that district. now, if they're able to take that momentum and the enthusiasm and turn that into votes, then

more power to them. that's exactly what they need to do. but in the end with this district, they wanted someone who would stand up for limited government and fiscal responsibility and be a check and balance on donald trump which is what handel campaigned on and she'll do a fine job for people in that district and i think another win for republicans goes to show that the trump message in repealing and replacing obamacare is still front and center on voters' mind. >> barely. >> thanks both for being here. well, there are nine supreme court justices but one of them is the swing vote on close cases more than any other. why the possible retirement of that one justice is a talk of the town in washington. you're live in the "cnn newsroom." i know if the pain comes, i'm not gonna get my job done.

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other people in washington don't have enough to worry about, rumors are swirling that supreme court justice kennedy will announce his retirement. if it's true it has a chance to

drastically change the court and help the conservatives put in place a right leaning majority that could last decades. let's talk about this with alan dershowitz. the last vacancy was caused by the death of antonin scalia last year. what could justice kennedy's departure mean for the court? he leaves now, especially in the current political climate. >> so it would mean the substitution of a more ideologically right wing justice for a right-leaning centerist justice who has strong views about the rights of gay people and health care and a range of other issues. so i think we see some change in some decisions but i have to tell you, i think we way exaggerate the impact of the supreme court on the daily life of americans. i have been watching the supreme court for more than 50 years. and i can only think of maybe a dozen or even fewer cases where the supreme court has really

made a difference in the life of the average american. obviously, the desegregation case would be one. the gay marriage case. abortion case would be another. but you really you can count on one or two hands -- take for example the issue of money in politics. money in politics apparently doesn't have as big of an inpact as we thought it did. donald trump spent far less money and won the election on gun control. you know, the states were not going to pass gun control anyway. even abortion and gay rights they were going -- it would happen more slowly and not in every state. but i think the impact of the supreme court on the daily life of americans tends to be exaggerated by lawyers, law professors and even the media. we will survive the appointment of a conservative justice to replace -- the great justice kennedy who -- >> but justice kennedy i think it's important just -- i didn't

mean to interrupt you, but the bottom line is he has been a swing vote in a lot of the cases that you just picked through. on the abortion issues, on the gay marriage issues. same-sex issues. on the affirmative action case that liberals had cheered where he came down and on other cases like gun rights you mentioned and the election money. conservatives cheered where he came down. so he in particular seems to -- you know, i don't know if you say play both sides or be very much in the middle so his replacement could make a big difference, right? >> oh, no, i don't think so. i don't think we'll see a reversal on the gay marriage issue. i think that's here to stay. i don't think we'll see a reversal on roe vs. wade. i think we'll see some cutting back at the periphery. but the rights once they're established by a majority tend to stay in effect. we may see some change in affirmative action, but that may have happened anyway.

i think that there are a great many people who think that maybe race specific affirmative action has run its course. and we may see some pulling back no matter who the justice was, even with justice kennedy. so i think we should understand that this is an important -- a significant change and it may impact some of the 5-4 decisions but let's remember that most of the decisions are not 5-4. many of them were 7-2, 6-3. so also the list of justices that president trump promised he would pick from, the federalist society many of them are judges who believe in precedent and who would not want to immediately overrule prior decisions of the supreme court. so it's an important event if it occurs but not a cataclysmic event. it takes on more importance when you have a president and both houses of congress in the same party that requires checks and balances by the united states supreme court.

and we may see a little bit less of that but the sky is not falling. the rule of law will prevail and we will survive whoever is appointed to replace a justice kennedy. >> and we're talking about it this weekend, there's a meeting of the past clerks from the supreme court that are coming to washington and so that's where the rumors start to bubble up. is there going to be a big announcement. would you see be surprised to see kennedy retire right now? >> i would. i think that he very much he wanted to serve for a year on the court with his former law clerk. it's an honor to serve with your former law clerk and he's served now for a few months but my own suspicion is he'd like to serve out the one additional year but i think he'll retire before the end of the first trump term. if it's now or next year we can assume that president trump will get at least one appointment and then of course nature takes its course. we have so many justices now who

are at an age when even if they choose not to retire, nature may take its course and we may see more than one appointment during the first term. and if there is a second term obviously the entire court will change quite dramatically. >> it's not a matter of if, but when this is going to happen. alan dershowitz, thank you very much. justice in a rape case. a former vanderbilt university football player facing at least 15 years in prison after being convicted of raping an unconscious woman inside a teammate's dorm room. 23-year-old brandon banks was found guilty on friday. two of his ex-teammates have been convict an a fourth player has yet to stand trial. players used cell phones to record their crimes and videos of the 2013 incident that were shown in court. sean spicer is no stranger to standing in front of the cameras but the white house

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the white house press secretary stands in front of the reporters and explains what's the president is doing and thinking but these are very different times. here's what we can show you from yesterday's press briefing. sketches. no video. because the white house wouldn't let us. it doesn't want you to see the

spokesman answering reporters' questions. it's an apparent escalation of the uneasy relationship between the white house and the media. we'll talk about it with host of "reliable sources" brian salt zer. why is the white house doing this? >> they want to focus on the president's agenda and not on the controversies an scandals that surround his white house. the banner on the bottom of the screen says white house in crisis, they very much in, but when you think of the russia investigations, the trump aides like jared kushner who have been und und under scrutiny, be they want us to pay attention on the v.a. signings and focus on that and not the other stories. >> can they do that on camera, talk about the issues they want to talk about? >> i agree with you. i think they're making a mistake by requiring these events to be off camera. so i think in the minds of sean spicer and his aides if you have

president trump in the -- and the only person speaking on camera during the day it puts the focus on his accomplishments. this is a very interesting and ten situation. >> do you think they the questions or the coverage will be different? >> my sense is they're thinking of cnn and the cable news channels and the daily show that use the sound clips that hold them accountable. it's harder to play it and show you they didn't follow through. >> i want to read a tweet from jim acosta, call me old fashioned, but i think the white house of the united states of america should have the backbone to answer questions on camera. what's your sense about how much the public cares about seeing these briefings? >> some said it's whining by the media, but it's about the

public. if you're a a fan of president trump and don't care if there's ratings on camera, you care when there's a democrat in office, and vice versa. if it's a democrat in the future, but whether republican or democrat in the white house, there's a push and pull. clinton, obama, bush, all past presidents in the age of technology news have tried to control the message. not to this degree. this is a much more dramatic escalation of this attempt to roll back access. >> what's the deal with the inconsistency, though, not saying we're only doing it this way, on and off camera sometimes, use the audio, then you can't. >> a lot of confusion, especially this month. these this happened in june with more offcamera, shows frustration and security at the white house. a day they are confident, they are on camera, guessing here, but i wonder if it has anything to do with that. this is not just briefings, but

transportation broadly. today president trump was at the golf course, and he was probably golfing, we don't know. we've not seen who's influencing him with the health care bill, you know, people who are golfing, and might talk about policy, and it's not telling us anything about those weekend excursions. the president said he's always working. we don't see it. we don't know. that's the example of the lack of transparency. beyond just the daily briefings that i think is detrimental to the public. >> all right, thank you. as always, don't miss reliable sources tomorrow morning here on cnn. up next, president trump says no tape, the other says, no kidding. reaction to the tail of no tapes. we're live in the cnn news room.

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for weeks, washington wondered did president trump tape his conversations with the director james comey? this week, the president revealed the answer, where else, but on twitter. >> reporter: tapes? what tapes? president trump shrugs this one off, twitter reaction was a laid back, oh, to, are you kidding, you literally threatened co measuring comey with tapes and now you say you don't have them. the mind games are exhausting. sorry, mr. comey. >> i hope there's tapes. >> the actual trump tapes are dock, scotch, and matching, all misspelled. the president's supporters filed back. trump did what was necessary to

make lying jim comey speak the truth. tweeted another, lordy, just block one of the most powerful men in the world and it paid off. imagine playing poker against trump. actually, he revealed the hand early. >> are there tapes, sir? >> you'll be very disappointed when you hear the answer, don't worry. >> disappointed isn't the right word. >> nutty. >> reporter: watch the magician's hands at all times. i never believed there were tapes, but now trumps say there were not any. i'm not sure. >> donald trump is a national version of candy crush wasting our time whether we like it or not. >> reporter: some critics took the president admitting the obvious in stride. it's okay, he'll take care of it. referring to special counsel robert mueller, after the president tweeted, i did not make and do not have any such recordings. one used a previous trump tweet to reply, what a load of

convfefe. >> thank you for being with me. i'll seal you back here in one hour from now live in the cnn news room. smerconish is next. ♪ i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia. we welcome the viewers in the united states and around the world. a block buster, washington post report confirms president putin gave direct orders to meddle in the 2016 u.s. election. putin sought to damage democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton and help elect her opponent, donald trump. given what president obama knew and when he knew it, according to a former senior obama administration official, did that administration quote-on-quote choke when